Figment: Creed Valley is an action-adventure game set in the human mind. Nightmares are spreading chaos and have overrun once-peaceful lands. Join Dusty, The Mind’s courage, as you make your way through puzzles, musical boss fights and unique environments. Face your fears head-on.
You will be travelling through the outer cerebrum as it has been plunged into darkness. Gloom clouds and hostile plants have overtaken a once green and peaceful area of the Mind.
Out of the shadows, two tusks appear. The Black Hog is here!
Prepare for a Rock n' Roll showdown.
Face stress, anxiety and the fear of the dark in a musical and surreal universe. Grab your sword and restore the light that once was.
We've been working on The Jester's boss fight(s) recently and it seems like a good time to share! His carnival themed outfit and style in fighting is similar to that of a circus. It is theatrical, musical and overwhelming. Here's how we structure the fights, coordinating carefully with the music to put the attacks on beat and create a visually pleasing event at the same time. Creating musical boss fights is an essential part of the Figment universe. Their theme songs give little tidbits of information, describing why they are spreading chaos in The Mind.
Step 1
Greyboxing stage: prototyping boss mechanics but also exploring general game mechanics, puzzles and enemies.
Step 2
We thought of an interesting stage shape to go alongside the mechanics developed above and put on some temporary textures, models and music to get a feel for the fight as a whole. As the music is essential, getting the timing right was a barrier of its own.
Step 3
Here's one of the animations we implemented into the fight.
And this is the final version of the stage, ready to be placed in-game.
Step 4
Some crisp animations and different fight patterns, it's all coming together.
Step 5
And this is the final result! A cleaner background, some lighting effects and even wildlife (if you can spot it) have been added.
If you want to check out the process with the music, click the video below :)
https://youtu.be/NqFm4SFykcg
Come say hi and hang out with us in our discord https://discord.gg/WEEWBce where we share this type of behind the scenes stuff often :)
Welcome to Figment: Creed Valley, a surreal and musical representation of the human mind!
Creed Valley is where your set of morals and opinions come from. In this demo, you will play as Dusty, The Mind's courage.
The peaceful neighborhood of Conviction Lane has succumbed to chaos, a Nightmare is on the loose. Root out the culprit and chase them through mind-bending puzzles and whimsical enemies. Test your own courage in a musical finale against the nightmare which has its own theme song. The demo is around 15 minutes to complete, have fun!
Come hang out in our discord! We'll be online to hang out and answer questions :)
Developer Live Stream! Never before seen playthrough and behind the scenes
Hello from the northern lands of Denmark! Hope you're all safe and sound :)
Figment: Creed Valley will have a playable demo during the Steam Games Festival (June 16th to June 22nd). Klaus (CEO) and Niels (Game and Sound Director) will be playing through never before seen levels of the game!
What to expect:
Musical boss fights
Behind the scenes
Never before seen levels and enemies
Set a reminder to hang out with us and chat on the event!
A Nightmare Approaches, The Black Hog!
Cerebrum City has succumbed to darkness, the Black Hog is here...
The once lit-up and vibrant roads are now devoured by darkness. Only the faint remains of what used to be Cerebrum City may guide you to what caused this chaos, The Black Hog.
Dusty, The Mind’s courage is needed once more to defeat this new nightmare. Restore the balance by shining new light onto the murky obstacles that block your path.
As intimidating as it may seem, the tusk-wielding foe is not new to The Mind. It feeds off stressful situations that may arise when facing new and challenging tasks.
Dusty is confident that it can be defeated: “Relax. The Black Hog visits here everytime the mind is under a bit of stress. Let's find a way to light up the mood so I can get a stab at the dark!”
We've posted some behind the scenes process and in-game snippets on our Twitter too! Check it out by clicking the Twitter icon below. - The Bedtime Team <3
New Boss Added! Presenting The Jester
Hello from the beautiful lands of Denmark! We're incredibly excited to finally talk about the main antagonist of Figment: Creed Valley, The Jester.
The jester is the mind’s short-term planning and urge to seize the day, impulsiveness incarnate. A traumatic event seen in Figment let him free from The Mind’s grasp. Unlike other Nightmares we have encountered, The Jester spawns from the subconscious’ natural setting and is needed for The Mind’s well-being. In Figment, we explored how experiences affect your subconscious, read more about it here.
Unlike the other nightmares in Figment, The Jester is part of The Mind. He once lived in a house in Creed Valley like the other voices, and was kept under control by a more responsible life style. However, due to his impulsive nature and disregard for the consequences, he has broken free and leads a quest of rebellion. His carnival themed outfit and fighting style is theatrical, musical and eccentric.
As Dusty and The Jester are both essential parts of The Mind, their fights are significant internal battles to restore balance. As we face these situations in our daily lives, courage is needed to undertake new and unusual situations. At the same time, we need a certain freedom of thinking to find new interests and stay stimulated. Their fight symbolizes the internal conflicts that we face, whether we solve them in the blink of an eye or are ongoing processes that challenges our mind set.
Here is the culprit himself! What are your thoughts on this crazy nightmare?
Update 1 - New in-game element
Hej hej everyone!
We're back with a small update, this time with a new in-game element to Figment: Creed Valley. Drum roll please...
It's a piano bridge!
Above is a piano bridge in two different states, which changes after you hit the Mind Converter! The 'switch' lets you adventure through two state of mind, open-minded and closed-minded. Let's get into the design process.
So the rules were the following:
A bridge was needed that would open and close when a switch was hit. It is one of the many puzzle elements in the game who's purpose is to either allow or block access after hitting a switch (open-minded and closed-minded) when navigating through the level.
A musical environmental element to add character to the world. In the first opus, Figment, the world is living and the main character Dusty is part of it, not the other way around. We felt that the world would feel barren and lifeless without a well-structured landscape.
Below is an in-game example of the bridge when open. What is important to note in the open-minded state is that it is the moment you let the creative juices flow. Here, you see Dusty stepping on a key. The Mind is open to new ideas and in this case, to new music.
In the closed-minded state, speakers block your path and the piano plays it's own music. The Mind is set in its ways and plays the same tune over and over.
If you have any questions on what you've read or seen in this post, comment on the post or @ us on Twitter @Bedtimedg!
We’ve been working behind the scenes on this for a while now. We announced its release two weeks ago and have received great interest since then! We had great fun exploring the emotional values and impacts of events that happen to us, that surround us. In the first opus, a sweet little game called Figment, we explored emotional trauma and what it would look like if your brain lived in a surreal hand-painted world.
We learned a lot with Figment, and used the strong foundations of music, artwork and narrative to continue following a direction that resonates with us.
Updates of the game’s development will be posted regularly. We post new screenshots of new mechanics and game development info every Saturday on Twitter and Instagram.
Something important to note is that Creed Valley is an encore to Figment. That means that it is its own self-contained story and is a standalone game. However, if you want to get to know the characters better, we highly recommend that you adventure through the Figment and face off against the nefarious nightmares yourself!
